Metal Plastic Electronics

I’m going over three banana plug kits that come from Amazon. Their general fit and finish. The Sumnacon 39 inch multimeter test lead set. Item: https://a.co/d/5gdh6yb The Zhenyu 5 color fully insulated banana plug kit. Item: https://a.co/d/5EjsQsz The Goupchn 5 piece banana plug silicone test lead kit. Item: https://a.co/d/eLmyM5g

With the MAX17691A test board working well. It’s time to test wind some transformers for the voltages and currents needed. Can I even get enough copper wire in a tiny pot core? The challenge to find a stable way to gap the core. It’s all in a tiny adventure ahead. Part 15 of the DCL1 electronic load project.

Starting the quest to build a multi-output DC-DC power supply for the electronic load. Initial test of the MAX17691A from Maxim Integrated. A very small integrated power switch flyback controller IC. And winding some small transformers for the initial testing. Loads of fun for all. Part 14 of the DCL1 electronic load project.

Building a protection module to install in the OIVO DualSense charging Cradle. The circuit uses the Toshiba TCKE805NL eFuse for its overvoltage protection function. KiCad project file link: https://github.com/mlplel/tcke805-oivo-protect-board

A short review of the Nature Power 110-watt solar panel bought from Home Depot. A test of the power output. And a little overview of the small battery charge controller that comes with the kit. The label on the solar panel says it is a monocrystalline panel. The ad listing it for sale says it is a polycrystalline panel. The solar cells on the panel have a blue color so I believe it is a polycrystalline panel.

Installing a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro with heatsink into a PS5. The production date for the SSD is December 21, 2021.

Making the pieces needed to mount the NOGA MG9038CA cine arm to an Avenger F301 baby wall plate. And making an adapter to mount a Manfrotto 143BKT camera bracket to the 1/4-20 end of the cine arm. A little machining on the mini lathe along the way.

Turning some small pieces of acrylic into a small storage rack. Made to hold the BOX-ALL 96 compartment and 144 compartment storage boxes.

A quest for the reason some PS5 DualSense analog joysticks have a small click when moved.

Replacing the USB cable on a Razer Kraken X, model number RZ04-0296 headset. Sometimes the headset would work fine. Other times moving the USB cable would cause the sound to come and go.

Reviewing the NOGA MG9038CA Cine Arm. Finally, getting an arm to precisely position a camera. How well will it work?

Test soldering some PIC16F15354 in the 28 pin, 0.4mm pitch, Quad Flat No-Lead (QFN) package. While these QFN-28 packages were quite a bit harder than the QFN-20 ICs. Success was achieved in the end.

Building a small light panel to help with my camera setup. The LEDs I’m using are YJ-VTC-RB-5730-12V-50 LED strips, from YUJI Technologies. Some of the best white light I’ve seen from an LED. Hopefully, it will help with my microscope video as I was needing a lot more light.

Testing the balance of current through the MOSFET power modules for the electronic load. Finding and fixing a careless error in the MOSFET drive circuit. Part 13 of the DCL1 electronic load project.

OXO food scale has started to give problems. It turns itself on and off and on and off. Doing a teardown. And will be hunting for the problem. Spoiler alert: If I measured correctly a CUI TS01-66-80-BK-160-LCR-D switch should be a good replacement.

Digging into the battery management board for the Samsung DJ96-00193E battery pack. Drawing up a schematic diagram to explore the workings of the device. schematic link: https://github.com/mlplel/rev_schmatic_dj96_00193e

OIVO IV-P5211B PS5 DualSense charging cradle modification. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the controllers on the cradle after they were charged. Paranoia on my part, a bit. So I’ll add a couple of Zener diodes to keep the voltage-clamped in case of a boost regulator failure.

The design, layout and construction of the display and user input PC board for the electronic load. Part 12 of the DCL1 electronic load project.

Using a vacuum desoldering tool to replace a defective joystick module. Going over the differences between the 4 controller joysticks and the 5 controller joysticks. Taking a closer look at the defective potentiometer that was causing the joystick drift.

Making some acrylic and aluminum equipment feet. Using O-rings to make them nonskid.

Finally happy with my QFN-20 soldering technique. Going over that process. And my first adventure with solder paste using the Atten ST862D hot air station. Fun all around.

Replacing the flexible cable assembly on a Canon imagePrograf iPF9400. The printer was giving intermittent and random, carriage and print head errors. Also the printer would intermittently indicate the carriage cover was open, when it was not.

Pressure mounting the MOSFETs to the heat sinks. Making the high current connection from the MOSFET modules to the bus bars. Part 11 of the DCL1 electronic load project.

Using the 175 watt American Beauty soldering iron to put some copper bars together. The bars will create the mounting point for my electronic load’s high current shunt. Part 10 of the DCL1 electronic load project.

Bend a couple of small items, and go over my satisfaction with the bender after using it a little over a year.